Banks

A transparent pricing approach was integral to the success on Tuesday of UniCredit AG’s (HVB) five year Pfandbrief, which was launched with a deeply negative yield.

Credit Suisse was marketing a 10 year bullet senior bond on Tuesday, avoiding negative yields by choosing a tenor longer than seven years. At the same time, Sparebank 1 announced it was readying its green debut in senior format.

James Gifford, who was founding executive director of the UN Principles for Responsible Investing, has joined Credit Suisse in the newly formed position of head of impact advisory.

The UK’s LXi Reit is already putting its new revolving credit facility to work, with the property investment company making acquisitions totalling £55m.

French bank BPCE has mandated lead managers for a potential five year senior preferred deal in the Australian dollar market — its first this year in the currency.

Two CEEMEA issuers — one of which is a Russian corporate — have mandated for bonds and are heading off on roadshows, ending a barren summer for the asset class.

Westpac placed just under HK$13.4bn into the Hong Kong market across two MTNs last week — the pair of bonds are its largest ever in the currency, according to Dealogic. The notes came in a busy week for niche issuance, and bankers have posited that this move into the peripheral markets comes as a response to the global fall in yields.

Crédit Agricole CIB has appointed Pierre-Francois Martineau as a managing director in the bank’s new leveraged and telecom finance group (LTFG) in Paris.

The regulator of China’s interbank bond market has given BNP Paribas and Deutsche Bank type A-licences that give them full underwriting access to the market. But the move has puzzled a number of bankers both onshore and offshore.

BMO Capital Markets’ SSA banker Lindsay Wortzman is transferring to Toronto, and to replace her the London team have picked up Samantha Cook from Nomura.

Russian companies are showing more interest in euro-denominated loans, as funding in the currency becomes cheaper and as US sanctions complicate borrowers’ access to dollars. Siberian Anthracite is expected to close a loan refinancing with a new euro tranche this week, and at least two Russian borrowers are in preliminary discussions with international lenders.

Agricultural Bank of China Singapore branch has raised a $200m green loan from seven banks, following in the footsteps of peer ICBC London, which signed a mandate letter for a green loan three months ago.